


Drifting Through Walls

by daniwritesattimes



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Ghosts, M/M, Paranormal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-01
Updated: 2020-11-01
Packaged: 2021-03-09 05:22:22
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 10
Words: 14,336
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27319186
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/daniwritesattimes/pseuds/daniwritesattimes
Summary: Shikamaru and Neji, ghosts of the nineteen-twenties drift through the walls of the home they built as its new homeowners make themselves at home. Shikamaru tended to enjoy interacting with the living while Neji tried to refrain from such a thing. All in all, the only thing truly keeping the two from spooking the new family too terribly are each other.A Halloween short!
Relationships: Hyuuga Neji/Nara Shikamaru
Comments: 9
Kudos: 23





	1. Chapter 1

The two swung hand in hand throughout the living room as classic played after classic. They imitated the days they had lived with each dip and spin.

“I do enjoy having people livening up the house,” Neji said as a matter of factly as the Nara guided their step.

“Bushwa,” the Nara smirked.

Neji shook his head as Shikamaru brought him into another spin.

/ / /

“What do we do now that there’s no one to scare?” Shikamaru asked from where he watched the garden from the attic window.

“I’m sure you will entertain yourself just fine,” Neji said from where he sat in an abandoned living seat.

The Nara spotted a jogger in the street, “Neji.”

“Yes?”

Shikamaru nodded his head over, urging the Hyuga to come. Neji complied and walked towards the other who stared directly at the jogger who stopped to stare up at the window. Neji furrowed his brows before looking to the Nara.

“Shikamaru.”

“You were right. I did find a way to entertain myself,” he said as he made himself known to the woman who was still unsure of if she truly saw the man or not. He then tipped his hat in her direction before disappearing into the darkness of the dusty attic.

“Nara,” Neji complained, looking back to the man that seemed so suddenly immature.

“What did she do?” Shikamaru asked.

“She ran in the other direction.”

The Nara clapped loudly with a laugh that matched its racket.

Neji shook his head, “You are unbelievable even after being stuck with you for so long.”

/ / /

“Neji?”

Said Hyuga walked right into the dining room upon mention. Neji spotted a group of three children who stared up at the old structure. “No, Shikamaru leave them alone, please.”

“You have to get a good one in one of these days.”

“No. My last scare will do for quite some time,” he promised as he crossed his arms.

Shikamaru then flickered the lights making the children jump.

“They will most likely think that someone simply lives here as opposed to it being haunted,” Neji called to the man who had made himself scarce.

“Just wait,” the Nara was too excited over something so childish. He then flickered each light of the house making the children stumble to mount their bikes and scooters before they shot down the road as fast as their short legs could take them.

Neji listened to the Nara’s laughter from the upper floor just as unimpressed as he’s always been. Though he wished Shikamaru would leave the innocent alone, the trickery was all the man truly had since they could not leave the premises.

/ / /

Three teenaged boys stepped onto the property looking for trouble on an autumn night. They saw the house’s glow and heard old jazz from the twenties just from the outside but knew that the house was nearly abandoned apart from being on the market for years. Oddly, as soon as they picked the lock of the front door and stepped in, there was no music, there were no lights and no warmth for as far as the house went.

“Well there goes your evening,” Shikamaru spoke from the bottom of the steps where he sat, watching the three boys as they wandered.

“My evening?” Neji questioned as he leaned against the stair railing.

“Of peace.”

One of the boys placed his hands on the record player, “Hey guys look at this!” He signaled the two other boys down excitedly.

“Looks like they like the old record,” Shikamaru smiled proudly.

“How much do you think it’ll sell for?” One boy questioned.

The two that watched silently just outside of the living room went cold immediately, cooling the room with them.

“Woah, chilly,” another boy commented, “Guys, I kinda wanna get out of here,” he said as he watched the room’s entrance, failing to spot the two ghastly figures that stood, monitoring their every move.

“Okay, we can as soon as you help me lift this thing through the door.”

Said door suddenly slammed shut, producing a gust of chilling wind through the hall, filling the abandoned living room. One boy coughed once the dust was kicked up while the other screamed to the top of his lungs.

“What the hell?!”

“Probably the weather. Come on, work it open. Let’s get outta here,” the curious one said before looking back to the record player only to find a set of pale fingers followed by the rest of its hand and arm slowly reaching through the player’s horn place the tone arm onto the record. The disc ran on its own accord producing the sound of a saxophone that started off a song all by its lonesome before being followed by trombones and trumpets alike. The lights glowed suddenly though its power had no business being on at that hour. The boys watched each bulb as they slowly backed into each other.

“The weather?” One boy asked, “The weather?!”

Another let out a loud scream just as he had before, drawing the boys’ attention back to the record player where a shoulder now joined the arm. Locks of dark hair inched out after the extremity until a full head emerged from the record player’s horn. Slowly, the vintage record player regurgitated the rest of its body but stopped at the waist. Its arms hanged limply along with its head before it slowly lifted its chin to stare at the boys through white eyes, darkened just underneath. Its lips were dry, fingertips dark resembling that of a corpse. Each boy screamed as they scrambled for the door only to find another being that seemed to have appeared from thin air. Only, he hung from the top of the doorframe, swaying back and forth slowly. Wrapped around his neck was a pair of suspenders. A gambler hat sat over his face unsecured before it fell to the ground, revealing his blue face and red eyes that looked directly at the group. He watched them from their only way out.

“What the fuck?!” One boy yelled before grabbing a brick that sat in the corner of the fireplace that hadn’t been touched in generations, throwing it through the window. The boys then kicked through the remaining glass before diving out without turning back.

“Well that wasn’t right,” Shikamaru said as he slowly turned where he hanged.

“I should have never agreed to this,” Neji said from where he protruded from the record player’s horn.

“The agent will fix it,” the Nara assured.

Neji stared to the other who still hanged from the ceiling before slipping back into the horn to remove himself from the scene.


	2. Chapter 2

The front door’s lock clicked before opening to allow a girl in her teens to enter and marvel at her new home.

“Woah,” she said as she looked to her right to find an empty living room then to her left where the soon-to-be dining room sat, awaiting the new family and its memories. “Hey!” She yelled as a smaller boy nearly shoved her from his view.

“Whatever room is bigger is mine,” he declared before running up the immediate stairs.

“Mom!” The girl called.

“Bigger room goes to the bigger kid, Kiba!” The woman called.

“But…” the boy began from the top of the stairs.

“But what?!” The woman yelled.

“Nothing,” he mumbled defeated as he stuck his hands into his pockets, continuing through the dark hall. The floors were wooden all throughout the house, making his steps louder than they were in their old home. Due to lack of furniture, the sound bounced from the walls with little obstacles to absorb it. The boy looked through each room wondering why he and his family had to move in the first place. His friends were home, not here. He deflated more than what his mother had reduced him to already. He reached the end of the hall to find the largest room he had seen yet and fell back a step to admire it from the darkened hallway. He then realized that there was more of the room than what could be observed from the doorway, so he stepped in. He traced his fingers against the wall’s pattern as he walked along side it. He then wandered to one of the large windows on the opposite side of the room. It offered a view of a beautiful garden just down below it, facing the back of the spacious house. He marveled over its extravagance. The garden was fenced in by sturdy rose bushes that twisted into a maze as if the garden within needed protectors from any outsiders that wished to soil or steal the flowers from its previous homeowner. Kiba pressed his hands against the window, trying his hardest to remember the way to the center so he could challenge himself later. His breath fogged the window, but he repeatedly wiped the glass of the vapor in order to repeat the map until he felt confident enough.

“Kiba! Get down here and help with these bags!” His mother yelled. They have not been residents for a total of ten minutes before his mother introduced her harsh pipes that seemed to shake the skeleton of the house.

“Coming!” He yelled back, trying to match his mother’s volume. He then turned back to repeat the mental trail one, two, three more times before parting with the windowpane to meet with his family that struggled with their luggage on the first floor.

He ran through the door as two unnoticed strangers watched from either side of the window. Neji, who stood on the left of the pane crossed his arms while Shikamaru, who stood to the right smirked.

“Do not,” Neji ordered firmly.

“It’s been some years since we’ve had homeowners, come on,” the Nara argued.

The Hyuga did not budge.

“Neji,” the Nara tried.

Silence.

Shikamaru then turned to view the garden from the fogged window.

“Do not bother this family like you did the last,” the Hyuga ordered.

Shikamaru heard his words, but did not wish to acknowledge them, “The garden,” he said suddenly.

Neji looked to the other before pinpointing where his gaze was directed. They watched the grey of the sky dull the garden’s now wild growth.

“Remember it?” The Nara asked with a gentle smile.

“You would bring me a rose every day from the garden after we moved in,” the Hyuga remembered aloud.

“And I still would if I could,” the Nara assured.

Neji mirrored Shikamaru’s warm expression as they shared a comfortable silence.

“Can I at least play with the lights?”

“No.”

/ / /

“Mom, did you see the maze?” Kiba asked.

“No, but if I ditched everyone else to go sightseeing, I might’ve, huh?” She commented before forking a piece of broccoli into her mouth.

The boy then crossed his arms and sunk into his seat as his sister laughed.

“Shut up!” He demanded, stabbing one of her microwaved chicken nuggets with his own fork before chomping on it to send a message.

The girl stared to her brother for some seconds, mouth ajar before lunging towards him, locking him in a choke hold.

“Kids!” Their mother exclaimed, fisting the table.

The two stopped immediately unlike the fire that burned within them. His sister then stood, taking her plate with her.

“Hana!” Their mother began.

“I’m going to bed,” she called back.

“Fine,” the woman growled before standing and taking her leave second, abandoning the youngest at the very large table that seemed to swallow him up now that he sat alone. Not even the move seemed to help the family’s structure. Once the two were gone, Kiba sat and stared to his plate angrier after not being listened to, but it seemed to be a normality ever since their father left them without a word of communication as to why. The boy supported the weight of his head against his hand while the other picked at the contents of the plate. He now wore a pitiful pout that held so much behind it. It held questions, disagreements and pleas, pleas for his father’s return and to only be listened to. He needed someone too just how their mother had Hana and Hana had their mother. Sometimes the woman would fill the gap, but only when she felt like it. Finally, the boy made sure to mumble a curse inaudible to his mother who should have been on the higher floor by then, but the fear of her hearing it made it as hushed as it was. He then dropped from his seat, grabbed the plate, and made for the kitchen.

“Yeesh,” Shikamaru commented from the end of the long table.

“Familial dispute,” Neji guessed as he rested his cold hands on the back of the Nara’s dining seat.

“More like family drama,” the Nara corrected.

“Which is no reason to terrorize them,” the Hyuga finalized.

Shikamaru rested his cheek against his hand as he tapped his fingers against the hard wood, “You know we’ve been lucky.”

“How is that?” Neji questioned as he took a slow stroll around the dining room that he had been through many times leading up to that day. He looked to his antique vase that now sat empty and untouched ever since the roses had stopped coming in.

“We’ve had at least three families live here without doing renovations. Sure, they put up some pictures and televisions, but they never ripped up the floors or tore the wallpaper,” the Nara pointed out.

Neji dragged his hand across the floral patterns, “I suppose that is true.”

“Let’s hope this family doesn’t get too crafty.”


	3. Chapter 3

Neji stood idly next to Shikamaru as countless men tore down the wallpaper Tsume, the mother, had called offensive to the eye. The Nara only frowned as he laxed, dropping his hands into his pockets. All he could do in that state was watch. Neji, however stared with rounded eyes. Each sound that ripped through the room upset him more than the last. Shikamaru looked to Neji and watched as the shock began to seep further into the anger pool that accumulated within the Hyuga. Shikamaru reached out to place a reassuring hand on the male’s shoulder when the Hyuga disappeared.

“So much for leaving them alone,” he sighed before looking back to the mess that had been made of the very walls they had built.

/ / /

Tsume stepped from the shower, wrapping herself in a soft, light pink towel that was a shade similar to the bathroom wall tile. She looked to each square of the wall.

“Now, this is acceptable,” she noted quietly, comparing it to what she had ripped up in the living room of the lower floor. She then walked towards the sink and squeezed toothpaste onto her toothbrush before popping it into her mouth. She stared to her reflection in the mirror as she brushed, looking to each detail of her own body, critiquing every bit of what she saw.

A small, fractured sound came from somewhere behind her. It was faint ad sudden. She turned to find nothing out of the ordinary compared to before. She then walked towards the glass shower to search for the possible culprit of the sudden noise before turning back towards the mirror when another crack sounded. She turned again and inspected the glass of the shower carefully and more slowly than before. She then ran her hand across it to look for any possible divots or bumps only to find a smooth surface in mint condition. She narrowed her eyes wondering where else it could have come from until she remembered the glass of the mirror. She turned to face her reflection and began walked back towards it when another crack resonated from behind. She whipped her head backing away from the glass shower, but that time, the sound didn’t cease. The crack repeated, then again and again and again. She could not pinpoint the source until the tenth caught her attention. In the corner of her eye, something differentiated. She turned to find that one of the many tiles had been fractured, then the one next to it. Soon, she could finally piece together where the last few had come from. She looked down to find broken tiles along the floor where she had stepped, leaving trails of blood to and from the bathroom sink. The tiles continued to break one by one, then by twos and threes until they no longer followed a pattern. They seemed to shatter at random and the sound became highly intolerable. She leaned back, grasping the sink before bringing her hands to her ears only to see red in her peripheral. She ripped her hand away to find that it had been cut by the shards of the bathroom sink as her feet continued to bleed beneath her. She screamed. Then, all at once, the shattering stopped. She opened her eyes to find the walls were fully intact. There was no crimson and it seemed as though there never were.

“Mom?”

“Mom?!”

The two children rushed in to see what the terror had been only to find their mother sitting on the pink tile of the master bathroom, staring to her empty hands in shock. Her breathing was heavy as she stared to her fingers, looking for cuts of any kind.

“Let’s get you to bed,” Hana, the eldest said, holding onto her mother’s arm. Kiba took the other, helping the girl work their mother to her unsteady feet, motioning her towards the bed just outside of the vanity.

“You went too far,” Shikamaru said.

Neji only stared to the family until their figures were no longer visible in the bathroom doorway, “They tore the wallpaper,” he reminded as if it would justify everything.

“They’ve only been here for a few weeks. Don’t make them move out just yet,” Shikamaru urged.

“I only wanted her to know how it felt to have her favorite walls ruined in turn,” he explained quietly as he walked through the bathroom door which led directly into the master bedroom.

“Yeah, but things change, Neji.”

The Hyuga paused. Shikamaru stared to him from behind.

“Times change,” the Nara added.

Neji watched the children as they lied their mother to rest before they turned the lights out, wished their goodnights, and shut the door behind them. He continued to stand at the foot of the bed as the woman lied, stunned in the bed in nothing but a towel. He stared with resentment sitting heavy within.

“Neji…”

“No,” he whispered.

“Neji, it’s okay,” the Nara spoke, finally resting a hand against the tensed shoulder.

The Hyuga spun, eyes piercing straight through the other who insisted he calm down time and time again, failing to realize the words did little to nothing.

“How would you feel if they burned the rose garden?” The Hyuga posed.

Shikamaru opened his mouth only to draw a blank and fall defeated. Again, Neji left him in the blink of an eye, leaving Shikamaru alone to watch the woman as she admitted to herself that she would hardly sleep that night.

/ / /

Kiba stood at the entrance of the rose maze as he took a deep breath, recalling each turn he must take in order to reach the inner most area. He then grunted, announcing his readiness to the garden before proceeding. He took off straight, then left, then right, then straight before ending up at a loss of what to do. He had been overconfident prior to stepping foot into the now wild grown thorn bushes. He furrowed his brows trying to remember which direction to take now that he was being presented three directions. He could go straight, left, or right. He crossed his arms now irritated with his situation before turning back, considering simply giving up when he realized that he had no memory of how to get back. He tried only to grow confused with his current lefts and rights from what they had been before now that he would be traveling in the opposite direction. He frowned, becoming a bit fearful of what. Finally, he admitted to himself that he was in fact lost. He looked back to the three directions fighting a whimper before he heard rustling to his left. He looked to find nothing, but the sound picked up again. He neared it out of curiosity only to find another passage. His frown became that of uncertainty and confusion as he took the chance to walk it. He walked slowly and cautiously feeling that the rose buses’ walls were more intimidating that they had been from the window. He looked overhead at the wild coils of thorns and rose petals that colored his grey sky. Before he knew it, another rustle sounded, getting him to pause in his steps where he found another wall of thorns right before him. He then looked to his right to find the inner most garden. His eyes lit up before he ran to the yard victoriously. He sat at the outdoor table as he looked around considering making it his new escape. Only he knew the way in and hopefully the way out. He then spotted the back of the house where his mother’s room was, where he had been standing all that time back. He wondered if she could see him now. He waved just in case and continued to congratulate himself, offering mental praises as he swung his feet back and forth in the garden chair.

Shikamaru watched with a fond smile from where he stood just on the other side of the small, round, yard table. He looked down on the boy.

“Good ear,” the Nara commented, thankful that the boy had picked up on his hints along the way. If he hadn’t listened, Kiba could have walked right into the wall of thorns if he didn’t get lost in the maze first. The Nara then looked up into the same room that Kiba kept monitoring to find Neji staring right down at them. Shikamaru frowned wondering what the Hyuga was up to, but ever since the wallpaper had been torn, Neji had become a bit unfamiliar.


	4. Chapter 4

Hana sat in a dining room chair as she scrolled through her phone until an ad appeared, drawing Kiba’s attention. The boy peered over the girl’s shoulder, “Who is she?” He asked.

“No one, go away,” she dismissed, pushing his face as far back as she could.

“No, wait,” he said before swiping the phone from the girl, scrolling back up until the photo of the swimsuit model reappeared.

“Kiba!” Hana complained.

“Yeah?” He asked as though he hadn’t taken the phone from the disgruntled girl. He giggled as he tapped on the model’s page to find many more like the ad, “What’s this stuff you’re looking at, Hana?” He teased, knowing he was the only one who took joy in the nearly, nude displays. He continued to scroll as he fought the girl off.

“Kiba!” She yelled again.

“What the hell is going on down there?!” Their mother yelled.

“Kiba’s being a jerk! He took my phone!”

“Didn’t,” He sang. He reached the phone away from Hana as far as his shorter arms would allow him to. She reached for the device only for him to switch hands, making the girl lean in the opposite direction, crashing against the boy whose back crashed into the surface behind him. The wood banged against the dining room wall as the girl wrestled with Kiba for the cellular. The surface continued to rock until finally, the vase on top toppled, coming to a shattering fall against the old, dark wood. The loud noise made either of them jump before coming to a halt long enough for Hana to steal her phone back.

“Uh-oh,” Kiba said. Shikamaru could say the same as he waited for Neji to react. The Hyuga had yet to make an appearance which made it all the more eerie. The air was still.

“What the fuck was that?!” Tsume called as she stormed down the steps.

“You can tell her everything,” Hana said before slipping the phone into her back pocket.

The woman appeared in the dining room’s doorway and rounded the table to see what had fallen. The guilt on her son’s face was a place marker for the incident. She looked to the old vase that once was of one piece, now countless many scattered across the floor, some shards were scattered underneath the dining table.

She gasped, “What? Why?!”

/ / /

“Why?” Neji’s voice was quiet. He sat in the dusty chair of the dark attic. He sat in it sideways, facing away from the Nara who decided to find him before the Hyuga unleashed chaos on the small family.

“They were playing, and it fell. It was an accident, Neji,” Shikamaru explained as simply as he could because simple meant fast and fast meant the other would be more willing to keep an open ear. For some moments, Neji did not respond. He only sat dead still, because dead is what he was. Dead was what both of them were, but their emotions seemed to have stayed with them even through death. Slowly, Neji turned to look towards the Nara over his shoulder.

“It is broken,” the Hyuga reiterated what he had processed.

“Yeah, but it’s fine, they’re stupid kids, Neji.”

“It is broken,” Neji repeated before turning back to face the depths of the attic.

Shikamaru dropped the palm that had been rubbing circles in his neck, trying to think of ways to keep Neji’s head level. His attempts, however, came to a stop once Neji faced him. He was unfamiliar, paler, his hair seemed darker, but his face was unchanged. He was still Neji, only ghastlier. He was angry. “Neji…”

The Hyuga stood and made towards the attic stairs only to be held by Shikamaru. The Nara held on to him as Neji tried to get loose from the grip.

Kiba looked up where he thought he heard a thump. He stopped in the middle of the upper floor hallway to scrutinize the ceiling. As he listened closely, he found that he had in fact heard it. Quiet thuds followed afterwards that piqued his curiosity.

“Neji, calm down,” Shikamaru begged as he held his arms around the Hyuga’s arms and waist.

“Let go,” Neji hissed.

“Would love to, but not while you wanna slaughter a family.”

The door to the attic creaked, surprising the Nara and would have made him freeze in place if Neji didn’t toss around in his hold.

Kiba held a flashlight as he climbed the creaky steps towards the dusty attic. Once he reached the top, he looked around at yet another space he would soon call his own because of his rather territorial nature. He grinned to himself as the mental praises began to bounce from each corner of his mind to and fro. He walked around, picturing where he would hold everything when he heard more thumping just at the top of the attic steps.

Shikamaru stared at the boy from where he stood as he held his eternal housemate who began to fight out of his grasp all over again.

“Neji, stop.”

He did, putting an end to the thumping that had drawn Kiba to them. Still, the boy neared the area right at the top of the attic stairs, shining his flashlight down the steps that climbed towards him.

Shikamaru stared as the light went straight through the two of them. Though he had been here for nearly a century, the light flooding right through his very being was just another reminder that he was not even a concept to anyone anymore. He frowned, thanking that Neji had stopped moving at the very least, but the Hyuga did lean over in the Nara’s arms staring right into the young boy’s unsuspecting eyes. Kiba’s were innocent, adventurous, curious and very much alive still with much to achieve as he continued to live on, outside of these walls. The Nara only pitied the boy who had no idea what his mother had bought him into. He then looked to Neji who never took his hard stare from the one responsible for breaking such a prized possession, one that had held many roses gathered by his lover, the lover he had lived for and died with. The man he would die for a thousand times over. For, the vase was one of the few things left that was physical evidence of either of them walking this Earth. It was the only thing within the house that was a symbol of his lover’s passion and gifts to Neji. Its shattering shook the Hyuga’s ghost harder than the wallpaper of the living room of which they had spent winters before a fire sometimes trapped indoors due to a flash blizzard or simply because of a cool day off. The wallpaper along with the memories were ripped. Both the paper and the vase allowed Neji to picture their time together more easily. Now, with the changes, the argument that they were never there to begin with was stronger, but the family knew nothing of it. They may never because neither of them knew if their deaths ever even made the paper.

“Kiba! Lunch!” Tsume called.

“Coming!” He said, before jetting down the apparently empty attic steps.


	5. Chapter 5

Shikamaru watched through the cold glass of the window to where Hana and Kiba played in the snow. Tsume had driven to find firewood, leaving the children to fend for themselves on the freezing afternoon. The Nara frowned before turning to watch the staircase that led to the upper floor. Then, Neji’s fail figure appeared in the living room’s doorway. His hair was long and hid his delicate face. It deepened Shikamaru’s frown. It benefitted neither of them to become resentful especially being what they were because resentment was what they were susceptible to becoming.

Suddenly, old hits from the early nineteen-twenties played on the untouched record player that had not yet been thrown out surprisingly. Shikamaru watched as Neji’s head moved in the direction of the sound. The Nara held out a hand waiting for Neji to at least step into the room first. The Hyuga stood, dead still for a while before his head acknowledged the other whose offer still stood. Finally, he began a slow menacing step towards his partner as Shikamaru expected. He had played what used to be Neji’s favorite song to dance to, that is once he got the Hyuga to dance. He had been so stiff in his lifetime, never sparing anyone even so much as a smile. He never did anything unless there was something purposeful about it and that included dancing. He never saw it as something worth doing and only as people moving their bodies in strange uncoordinated ways until one particular ballroom dance. Shikamaru had taken his hand and started out slow. Oddly, the Hyuga could never say no to the Nara before they were ever even under the same roof. As far as he was concerned, Shikamaru was nothing more than a business partner, nothing more. Still, something about him was charismatic to the Hyuga that never allowed him to turn away. They danced the night away, but that was the night they had finally caught stares and whispers that raised Neji’s guard. Shikamaru urged him to ignore the others, they were only outsiders he would say. Still, Neji broke away from the Nara’s hold to sit back at his table where other members of his family-owned company sat as they scrutinized their proximity with each waltz they took. Shikamaru remembered their faces, all alike yet Neji’s stood out to him. Neji’s stare was nonjudgmental, it was yearning.

Now, the same song from the night played, and Neji was pressed against him, only now he was cold and drained of life. He was pale, hair as dark as a void. Shikamaru grabbed his hand as his other wrapped around the male’s waist. He saw himself continuing the dance they were never able to finish that night in the ball room while everyone was watching without a blink or so it seemed. Now, no one could see them, not even those who stood closest. It was not ideal to the Nara who wished to show the Hyuga’s beauty off as they swayed, but this would have to do for now.

He started off with a gentle sway back and forth, making it his mission to revive the Hyuga’s spirit before he was lost to rage, only to return once he was able to express that rage through the terror of those responsible. Just Neji walking in the direction of Shikamaru was progress enough; it told the Nara that he wished to get better. Shikamaru then increased the speed of the sway and maintained the motion for Neji to accommodate before taking a sudden turn, placing Neji in his previous step and Shikamaru in Neji’s. They now faced opposite directions than before. Shikamaru continued the sway as the saxophone slowed. He neared his mouth to Neji’s ear, “No one’s watching,” he reminded. He then began to hum to the tune of the song before standing upright. He stared to the male who still seemed to be disconnected.

“Neji, look at me,” Shikamaru called gently. He watched as the Hyuga’s pale eyes wandered but not towards him. Still, the movement alone was progress. “You’re beautiful even in death,” he said, trying to bring him back from any angle he could, “Do you remember this song?”

“Of course, I remember this song,” Neji said as though it had been an offense.

Shikamaru laughed at those words being his first ones in days.

“Neji.”

“What?” The Hyuga did not know what the other had found to be humorous.

“You have to stop watching them sleep.”

“What?” Neji narrowed his eyes.

“Stop watching them sleep.”

“I was not…”

“You were, I was there.”

Neji looked away as the Nara spun him, holding his hand over his head, “I do not remember…”

“It’s fine, just don’t do that again, okay?”

Neji raised a brow, looking the other right in the eye, “You make no sense,” though his words were accusatory, his tone was of fondness, a warmth Shikamaru had missed.

“You slipped,” Shikamaru explained.

“Oh,” Neji’s eyes softened, “I am sorry,” he dropped his gaze as though he was embarrassed at allowing himself to be so affected.

“Don’t be, you remember when I slipped,” the Nara said as though it were a joke of some kind. The time of which it had happened allowed it to be as such; it was so long ago. Neji nodded in admittance.

“I do,” the Hyuga said as though it produced chills he would never truly feel.

“They never touched the roses again,” the Nara said with a chuckle.

“They never even did so much as step foot into the yard,” Neji reminisced.

The two laughed together. Once they calmed, Shikamaru gave Neji a sly look that unsettled the Hyuga. Neji side eyed him, leaning backwards in the Nara’s arms, “What?”

“Sounded just a bit evil for a second,” Shikamaru commented before swirling Neji all over again. That was all it took for Neji to return to his usual, strictness. He led the swirl into a one right out of Shikamaru’s hold before he disrupted the play of the record as soon as the family entered through the front door.

“Alright,” Tsume grunted as she hoisted the wood in, “How do you kids feel about getting a pool?”

“Hell, yeah!”

“Yes!”

“Hana, language,” Tsume scolded.

“Yeah!” Her daughter corrected.

“But where would we put it?” Kiba asked.

Tsume lowered the wood to the ground before dusting her hands, “I was thinking about clearing out all those old roses. I don’t care for gardening and it takes up the whole backyard.”

Neji frowned before looking to Shikamaru who only faced the family with an unreadable expression.

“Shikamaru…”

The lights then flickered repeatedly before going out all at once.

“Shit!” Tsume exclaimed, “What the hell happened?!”

“Maybe if Kiba didn’t leave every light on at once, we wouldn’t have had a power outage,” Hana hinted.

“How many times do I have to tell you to turn off the lights once you’re done? You’re too old for this,” the woman complained as she barged back through the front door, slamming it behind her.

“Now she has to go get a bunch of stuff to make sure we don’t die tonight, good job,” Hana said, folding her arms as she looked down on her younger brother. She caught his frown and decided to drop her hostility enough to at least genuinely ask what was troubling him. She wasn’t used to her words ever stabbing the boy too deeply, “What’s wrong with you?” Though she dropped the venom content, the question was still attitudinal.

“Do we have to get rid of the garden?” Kiba asked.

“Well, yeah, what are you gonna do with it?” She asked.

Kiba shook his head, wishing to keep his secret. He decided he would live with it as long as he could before the treasure was rooted.

Hana shrugged before continuing towards her room where she seemed to spend more and more of her time as of late. Her younger brother continued to mope as he drifted into the living room, now adorned by a sofa and cushioned seats along with an ottoman as a footrest. He lied on the length of the couch and stared to the ceiling, distraught by the news.

Neji watched the boy as he expressed his heartbreak that seemed to make his being weight ten times more than it did only five minutes ago. “Shikamaru,” Neji began only to find that the Nara had left at some point. He looked to each corner of the room to find them empty. He then eyed the record player that had brought them together only minutes ago only for one of them to begin drifting all over again.


	6. Chapter 6

Kiba awoke against a couch that had been hardened by the cold. Hours had passed since he lied against its cushions it seemed. He sat up and looked around to find that the shadows now stretched across the room. It was close to evening and dinner had yet to begin. It was quiet which was unusual. Soon, he remembered the power had gone out prior to his sudden nap. He stood and was quick to hold himself as he shivered. He drifted from the cool living room to the top of the stairs where he expected the others to be.

“Hana?” He called, his voice small in the icy air. There was no response, so he took for his mother’s room which sat at the very end of the old hall. The floor creaked with each step it seemed which made his mother’s wishes to replace the wood with carpet all the more desirable.

“Mom?” He breathed through the door with a light knock. He then eased the door open and peered through the dark and empty room for the woman who wasn’t there either. He spotted a blanket that sat on the bed that had been left folded at the foot of the mattress. He took little time to grab it and wrap it around himself in hopes of warming himself even slightly. He then wandered to the window that he had been attracted to on their first day in the residence. He looked through the same glass pane and covered it in water vapor just as he did before only to wipe it repeatedly. He spotted the rose walls that warped until they revealed the inner garden that held countless other dead flowers that were upkept by the house’s agent before them. Many plants had died out because of the harsh coldness that was the winter season. Then, he looked to the garden table right at the heart of it all to spot a man sitting as though it were the most natural place for him to be. He was still, but he seemed to be indulging in the dead flowers all around him. Kiba could not see his face from the distance, but the man’s hair was tied in a pointy ponytail that was hard to miss. He wore a suit, an expensive one that seemed to be a shade darker than gold. Suddenly, the man placed what seemed to be a gambler hat over his face before slowly turning towards the window. Kiba’s eyes widened, wondering how the man knew he was there. The stranger slowly lowered the hat from his face which did little to help the boy discern his features.

A steady chill ran through him as he stepped back from the window. Eventually, his alarm finally fueled his will to find his elder sister. He wasn’t sure what the girl would do, but he did not wish to be alone right then and there.

Neji watched the boy as he stepped into a run, calling after his sister. The Hyuga frowned from where he stood next to the window, his ghastly being brightened by the white winter clouds of the snowy day. He then peered through the same window to find the Nara staring to the room. His expression was light and kind when he faced the boy, but now it was flat, devoid of any sort of gentle nature of which he used to be known for throughout his lifetime. Neji placed a hand against the glass, silently begging the Nara to end the torment before it truly began, but Shikamaru only raised the hat back over his face and turned back in his seat to indulge in the dead shrubbery once again.

/ / /

“Hana, where’s Mom?” Kiba asked in a panicked manner, looking over his shoulder as he entered her room.

Hana pulled her phone from the depths of her quilt to read what Tsume had sent her, “She said her car got stuck and she’s getting help,” the girl answered before pulling her arm back into the comfort of her thick blanket.

“Can she get here quicker?” He asked impatiently.

“If you wanna walk through the snow to help her push her car back onto the road, you’re more than welcome,” the girl said before turning over.

“Hana?”

“What, Kiba?”

“There was someone in the garden.”

/ / /

“I don’t see anything,” the girl deadpanned from where she stood in the window of the opposite side of the bed while Kiba watched through the other.

“No, I saw him. He was wearing a yellow suit and had a hat and spiky hair. He looked right at me!”

“How did he even get through the maze that quickly if at all? The only way to know the way is if you were in this room right now.

The air seemed to cool even further, causing both siblings to shiver.

“Okay, let’s just lock the doors. I’ll call Mom,” she said before leaving the boy to observe alone.

“I saw him, I did,” he mumbled pitifully. “Where did you go?” He whispered, ignoring his sister’s words. He then turned and heard a crunch underneath his foot. He looked down to find a dried rose, withered on the ground, crushed to dust by his heel. He leaned down and reach an arm beyond the warmth of his blanket to lift the flower that was drained of all color. He then looked to the door where another rose lied, wilted. He walked towards it and through the door of his mother’s room, but he did not wind up in the hallway as he typically would. The bite of the cold intensified as a gust of wind made it known that he was in fact in the rose maze which thorn walls had thinned along with being dried by the freezing temperatures. It allowed him to see a bit just beyond the wall which he believed would aid him in finding his way out. He turned his head to look for the house which should have been visible from where he stood only to find that the height of the dead roses had been multiplied. He could not see beyond its brittle coils, so he began to inch further. He watched his warm breath leave him and come in contact with the cold. There was a familiar rustling to his left. He found himself at the same intersection as the first time he traveled the maze. He followed after it, blindly trusting in the direction. Once he turned, he found another trail of individual roses that traced the rest of the way towards the center, but he did not wish to go to the inner garden, he wished to go home where there was indeed little warmth but more than what the cold dirt would offer his bare feet.

He turned back and rounded the corner only to be faced with the same three choices. Again, the same hint came. His heart quickened at being lost all over again. He did not miss the feeling. Only, now he was cold, and no one knew where he was. He was alone and lost. He turned his back only to find something through the tangle of dead roses. There was a blur of yellow that stood tall but still. The color seemed to be watching. Again, the sound from behind rustled on the left path. Kiba stared to the yellow fearing that if he looked away, he would be gone again. He saw the slightest movement and fell backwards before he worked to a crawl then a stand then a run in the direction of the sounds. He ran to where things would be clearer. He ran to the innermost garden.


	7. Chapter 7

“Kiba, what do you want from the store? Mom’s asking!” Hana called in vain. She grumbled at the inconvenience debating on leaving the boy out of the equation before realizing she would be scolded for doing that much. “Kiba!” She yelled even louder as she finished locking the final door before continuing to the last window. “Fine! Don’t say I never told you!” She sighed as she closed the last latch, continuing back up towards her room. She continued texting the friend she had left in her hometown figuring that Tsume would bring home fully charged portable chargers. She chuckled at her friend’s discussion before her socked foot came across something fragile yet rigid.

“Huh?” She questioned before locating the rose that now stuck to her white sock. “Kiba! I know you’re sad about the garden but pick up your mess!” She exclaimed before closing herself into her bedroom, stepping into the Jack-and-Jill restroom she shared with her brother. She continued to type away, standing stuck in place as the minutes passed without her noticing. She continued to laugh at what her friend sent until she heard a single heavy footstep in her brother’s room just behind the door to the other end of the shared bathroom. She watched the door for a moment, “Kiba?” She tried, placing the phone on the yellow, tiled sink. She walked towards it and opened the door to find her brother’s dark green room. “Kiba, stop ignoring me. You’re too old for this. I’m too old for this,” she dismissed before turning her back to find that the door to her room as been opened, but she thought she had closed it once she entered. She furrowed her brows, “Kiba, go away,” she complained before reentering the bathroom, shutting her brother’s door behind her. She walked to the sink where she had left her phone to find another rose in the sink’s bowl. She stared to it as she eased her phone into her pocket. “Thank you?” She was unsure of how to take what seemed to be her younger brother’s odd behavior. To her, it seemed to go from teasing to something sweeter than what she was used to, so naturally, she became suspicious.

She stepped out into the hall from her room and looked it up and down, “Kiba?” She began searching now with having nothing else to do. It had reached a point to where her breath was visible even within the walls. She spotted her mother’s doors. One of the two seemed to be slightly ajar, so she walked towards it in search of her brother, “Kiba?” She asked as she peeked through the crevice. She entered, leaving the door wide open behind her. She looked to her mother’s empty bed then to either window that stood on opposite sides of the headboard. She walked to the one on the left, the one that Kiba seemed to favor and entertained the boy’s claim that he had seen something in the backyard. She looked through the glass now acting out of boredom. That was until her eyes rounded at finding her barefooted brother standing in the maze seemingly frozen stiff. “Kiba?” She breathed before turning, aiming to get the boy out of the cold only for the door to be shut. She froze midway through the room, sure that she had left it open. She was sure to make note of it, but now that she knew the younger was outside as opposed to somewhere lurking in the house, the sight was soul wrenching. She was scared silent. She turned and began banging against the window in hopes of earning the boy’s attention only for his back to remained turned. He did not move almost as if he were in a trance.

She was scared stiff. The idea of turning to face the door pushed her close to tears. She dialed her mother before the ringing came to an abrupt stop. Her phone went black even though the charge was only one fourth drained. She stared to the screen in terror. The terror grew once she noticed a figure just over her head in the reflection. She screamed and turned around to come face to face with an empty room, only the door now stood with roses grown wildly over it as a sort of lock of nature. Its thorns disheartened her as she sunk to the ground. She covered her head, begging to be left alone, begging to wake up, begging for her mother.

/ / /

“Stop this,” Neji ordered the one who now sat in the old chair of the attic.

An apathetic Nara only sat there coldly, not sparing his partner a glance. Neji gave him a desperate pleading look though the Hyuga knew nothing would bring him back after the mention of his roses being reduced to litter. Neji looked to the attic stairs. He had to do something.

He felt the front door open. The mother had returned. His best bet of saving the Nara’s roses and the family would be through the mother. He would have to scare her off of the property so much so, that she would never think of returning.

/ / /

Kiba had taken turn after turn, many more turns than he remembered before he finally wandered around a corner that revealed the inner garden, only even then the rose walls had elongated times ten, making it difficult for sunlight to pour in overhead. Still, fragments of light shot through the bushes’ cracks which spotted the area. Kiba stepped towards the garden, settling in the chair of the rusted table. The darkness cooled him further and soon, he was incapable of calming his trembling. He held himself before hearing more rustling behind him. He sealed his eyes in defense, picturing the man he had seen through the window. “Go away!” He shouted through a thin voice, “Leave me alone!” He cried.

The rustling grew in volume and area. The entire wall on the other side of the garden sounded as if a troubled wind had been caught, never to find its way out of the vines. Soon, the other walls all around him picked up in motion as well, further shaking the boy who continued to yell as he cried, “Go away! Go away!” He then peeked over his shoulder to find that the garden no longer had an exit. He was boxed into what seemed to be layers and layers of dead shrubbery that no longer had crevices and empty patches. He saw no light was peeking through any holes. It was only rose bushes for an everlasting distance beyond him. Not only that, but the garden seemed a bit tighter than before, almost as if the walls had begin closing in when his eyes were sealed.

/ / /

“Let me out!” Hana screamed at the top of her lungs. It was a panicked screeching that showed of her extreme desperation and disliking of closed quarters, “Let me out!” She nearly wailed. She shakily worked to a stand, grabbing a hanger from her mother’s bed. She tried to hook the thorned vines a loose one by one only for the vines to wrap around the hanger’s hook. They then extended to her hand, piercing her skin. She quickly yanked away before it could grab a complete hold of her. Still, the vines continued to grow, so she ran and locked herself in her mother’s bathroom and backed away from the door. 

She caught a shade of bright red in the corner of her eye to find a single rose, living this time, sitting in a delicate vase against the sink’s pink tile. She stared to it as though it would move if it went unmonitored. She heard scratching at the door. She disconnected her eyes from the vase to find that the vines coiled just beneath the door. Her eyes teared up as her lip quivered. She shook her head profusely before crying again. She heard a sharp crack, her head whipped around to find the rose had broken out of the vase and stood on its own, its roots now a heap against the tile. The water of the vase spilled onto the floor and inched towards her feet. Hana stepped back before stepping up onto the pink bathtub as a last resort. She then eyed the glass shower right next to the tub. Luckily, the last family had remodeled it a bit to where she was able to shut herself into the shower, so she stepped around the water and vines to box herself in the glass as she watched the roots reach towards her. She shut her eyes as she trembled behind the shower door. She held herself having abandoned her blanket in the bedroom that must have been filled with the plant by then. Her breath came in shorter, larger clouds of vapor now as the vines began to break the bathroom door. The lengths of thorns spread across the tiled walls but kept a main focus on the girl it seemed. They were drawn to Hana, stopping at nothing to wrap themselves around her possibly to mummify the girl before they ever stopped their expansion.

The vines, now more thorns than roses crashed against the door like the wave of a turbulent tide, treating everything in its path violently. A loud crack sounded as the plant weight down against the bathroom sink, causing tap water to spray from the now dislodged faucet. She looked up, breath coming to a stop as the growth towered the shower glass to a point of creeping over its top. It now began to twist downwards, continuing after its prey without faltering.

/ / /

“Hana?! Kiba?! What the hell?” Tsune grumbled as she removed her vest, tossing it on the couch. She placed her keys into the bow that sat on a small table next to the front door, “Kids, come help me unload the car!” She called before working her second boot off with a huff. She placed her hands onto her hips and stared up the stairs impatiently. “Kids!” She yelled before continuing up the steps.

Neji watched the woman work her way up the stairs. He had been watching her from the open dining room thinking of ways to scare her from the home immediately without making her drop dead on the spot. He frowned as he stepped into the foyer to watch the woman’s back as she reached the top.

“Huh? A rose?” Tsume noticed aloud, coming to a complete stop at the final stair.

He had to act now.


	8. Chapter 8

Kiba screamed for help as the walls halved in distance.

Hana cried as the coils touched the top of her head.

Tsume stood silently in the hall, holding a single, dried rose, “Kids?” She called as she studied it. She could not hear their shouts. “Damn, it’s freezing,” she commented under her breath. She then continued through the hall to Hana’s bedroom. She opened the door. It was just as freezing, dark, and empty as the rest of the house. With it now being sundown, the cold’s nip had worsened dramatically. “Kids come down so I can start the heater. I got a bunch of batteries, so we won’t freeze too much tonight.” She continued through the restroom which led her into Kiba’s room. She looked around to find that it was just as vacant as her daughter’s. She wrapped her arms around herself when she picked up on a scratching just outside of the boy’s door. She walked through the room until she was back in the main hall. She looked towards the end with the stairs then towards her own room. She noticed that the doors had been shut which was odd. They were only ever closed if she were trying to sleep very late at night and it was rare either of the children went in there unless they needed Tsume for something. She released her hand from the warm tightness of her wound arms to open the door only for the door to remain shut. She frowned and applied more force. Still, there was nothing. Just as she opened her mouth to accuse one of them of locking it from the other end, she heard the same scratching, but it came from her right. She turned to find that the wallpaper had bulged towards her. She fell against the wooden flooring and scrambled backwards until her back hit the opposite wall. The more she looked to it, the more humanistic features she was able to identify. She saw a face that seemed to be stretched downward in terror with hands that seemed to reach out towards her the best they could all while not being able to through the wallpaper that seemed to hold the person behind the wall like a tight sheet.

Tsune caught her breath as she slowly stood. She swallowed thickly and shut her eyes to the display, turning her back to it to face the stairs, “You’re not real, damn it. You’re another damn vision,” she muttered aloud, “I’m flushing those meds. I can’t keep doing this to the kids,” she said as she took for the beginning of the hallway leaving Neji at a disadvantage. He needed to get rid of that comfort of it being able to be dismissed as only hallucinations – which they were, but not due to any pill.

Tsume heard a long and dreadful tear that ripped upwards through the wallpaper that had held the person she was sure. Still, she kept her back turned sure that it was only her mind that was creating the sounds and images. She refused to play right into it like how she used to, jeopardizing her custody over her own two children.

Neji’s pale and cold figure fell from the wallpaper with a thud that creaked the wood beneath him before he began to head towards the woman in a slow crawl. He croaked, producing a sound of someone who wished to take in a long overdue breath, but had something that prohibited it from reaching their lungs. His nails scraped against the dark wood as his dead weight produced creak after creak as he advanced slowly but surely down the hall. He watched as Tsume stopped in her tracks right before the steps.

“It’s always the same shit. I see something that’s not there, then it goes away and I’m standing there looking stupid, well,” she tightened her fists, “Fuck off,” she hissed turning to face the ghost that had closed in on her. Her confidence faltered briefly at the sight of Neji’s white face, large, droopy black eyes and mouth that matched the color of his mop of a head of hair. He looked as though his weight was too much for him which led him to resort to using a single broken arm to move. He continued his pained and long gasps as he reached for the woman. “You’re not real,” she whispered angrily, “you can’t hurt…”

He then grabbed her wrist firmly showing no signs of letting go.

Tsume froze as she stared to the spirit whose white skin heavily contrasted the darkness of the hallway. It had touched her. None of her visions had ever reached this level of reality. She was paralyzed with fear having pushed her limits up to this point. The painful and cold grip seemed to have stopped her heart.

Neji then let out a piercing scream of various voices, pitches and volumes causing Tsume to scream in response before she tipped backwards, rolling down the stairs. She looked up to find the ghost following her down the steps only quicker this time and it was the final push she needed to shoot through the front door, failing to shut it behind her. She raced out into the freezing snow where she finally picked up on the first cry. It belonged to Kiba and echoed from the backyard where a certain rose garden had lived and died over and over for nearly a century before their arrival.

Neji made sure the woman had fled for good before standing, taking his normal appearance, and shutting the door from where he stood at the top of the stairs without moving to do so.

Tsume ran as hard as she could to the back of the house, hopping the fence in order to reach where the screams resonated. Again, the yell sounded triggering her legs to move on their own accord, “Kiba?!” She yelled at the front of the rose maze. She was intimidated by its twists and turns, but still, she plunged right in, using her son’s voice to guide her, “Kiba!” She called.

“Mom!” He cried.

She ran into several dead ends, but it did little to slow her. She only started on a new path each time.

/ / /

“Shikamaru, I scared her into leaving. She’s only getting her children so they can leave together. The roses will be okay,” Neji pled, walking towards the Nara that sat blankly in the dusty chair. The Hyuga lowered himself before the man, placing his hands onto the Nara’s lap, “Shikamaru,” he begged again before hearing the screams that ripped throughout the property. He stood and looked through the attic’s window where Tsume ran aimlessly as Kiba held himself, blocking his eyes from the garden walls. Neji looked back to the Nara who hadn’t budged since the woman mentioned digging the roses up to be tossed aside. He began to wonder if there was anything he could truly do.

/ / /

“Kiba! Hana!” Tsume yelled over and over, shooting in every which direction of the maze that seemed to grow and thicken with each step she took, “Kids!”

“Mom!” Kiba shouted, his voice was faded by the distance between then that sounded as if it had grown.

Again, she took off around a corner that was an immediate dead end. She yelled in irritation to the wall of withered vines and thorns. She then turned to start anew when she spotted a man with hair to his waist who wore a white and tan checkered V-neck sweater over a white dress shirt with a tan tie. His pants were the same shade as the tie, his shoes leather, formal, “Follow me,” he said.

The woman screamed, “Get away! You’re not real! You’re not there!”

“I am.”

She spun clumsily on her heel now disgruntled, “No!”

“I can help you find him,” Neji assured.

Tsume only sped off.

“Your son is at the center. Your daughter is in your lavatory,” he said from behind.

Tsume’s eyes shot open in shock and she spun to ask who he was only to be faced with another path to choose from. She the looked forward then to her right and her left to find more openings had been created. She grabbed her head, “Help me!” She shouted finally, “I don’t care if you’re real, just help me!”

“Mommy!” Kiba called. However, his voice seemed to have become clearer after her demand. His voice was more easily directed and Tsume shot after that path on nothing but a hunch.

“No!” The boy yelled, again giving his mother direction unknowingly.

“I’m coming!” She promised as she ran, chest now heaving. She looked to the right where she last heard him until his voice sounded from the left as well. She looked to both back and forth becoming panicked again until another voice was added to the chaos when she eyed the right.

“No,” the voice said, as though denying the passage.

So, she chose to chase down the left eventually bringing her to the innermost garden where Kiba sat wound up like a ball in the seat of the garden that seemed nothing out of the ordinary.

“Kiba,” she gasped, running to him to wrap the boy in her arms. Though he was nearly ten, she still lifted the boy and ran out of the cornered area. A cool breeze whipped in the direction of whichever path she needed to take, and she wasted no time blindly trusting in it. She ran and ran lefts and rights and around sharp turn around corners no matter how much her chest burned.

“Mom!” Kiba screamed.

Tsune turned to find a pale man in a yellow suit that held a brimmed hat over his face. He stood dead still and faced the two as they made their way through the maze.

“Close your eyes!” She yelled, but Kiba couldn’t. It was the man he had seen from the window that was once sitting in the garden. The boy then realized that it must have been his garden. It was his garden and still is.

“The gardener,” he whispered.

Finally, they emerged from the brittle bushes and fell against the mix of dirt and snow. Kiba came down with his mother as the woman heaved over him.

“Mom?”

“What were you doing?!” She breathed harshly, eyeing his purple feet.

Suddenly, a window on the highest floor flung open, finally allowing Hana’s screams to escape.


	9. Chapter 9

Neji stood nearly nose to nose with the Nara who stood unmoving in the unruly maze. All he could do was stare into his cold eyes that had yet to move from where Tsume and Kiba had fallen though they were long gone by then, most likely running after the girl who had screamed so terribly from the master vanity. He knew his words would not reach the Nara, still Shikamaru was there. So, Neji stared to him, hoping he would at least acknowledge his presence. In the end, he couldn’t help but open his mouth.

“Shikamaru.”

“Hana!” Tsume yelled swinging the door wide open before shooting up the stairs after lying Kiba down against the floor of the foyer, “Hana!”

Neji placed a hand against the Nara’s cold, dead face as he stared into his eyes, “Do you remember?”

“Hana!” Tsume ran through the dark hall to find layers of thorn bushes covering the floor.

Neji continued knowing the Nara would not answer, “When we were,” he paused as he looked for a substitute before deciding to remain blunt, “Well, alive. Do you remember the night we met, by chance?”

“Hana!”

“Mama!” Hana’s cries became muffled by something unknown to her mother. Tsume walked through the thorns with nothing but socks, telling herself it was all an illusion. It wasn’t real, it wasn’t there. She fought to the double doors through tears, ripping the dried roses from the door until the knob was visible enough for her to grip it. She used her grip to force it open enough for her to slide through. Once she was in the room that seemed to be colder than the rest of the structure, Hana’s calls came to a stop altogether.

“My family came to you to make a business deal if not a partnership. My family thought you were nothing but a dewdropper, cold and uninviting, blind the lot of them. I thought so, too,” Neji carried on, “They didn’t like you, not one bit,” he smiled fondly, “But I told them we should give you a chance. After all, your moving pictures were fascinating. We only needed that extra advertising to tell the people that they had nothing to fear about the new and improved automobiles. Just that small push could have sent us into better business than ever, but you didn’t make business so easily. You added something to the deal that was unknown to my family, but known only to me,” Neji placed a hand to the Nara’s stiff shoulder, “You saw something in me, I believe. You’ve always been the best that seeing things in people that not even they saw in themselves. Fascinating you were and still are,” he drew in closer, dropping his gaze to the Nara’s suit traced in golden patterns, “Even your wealth was there to prove them wrong, but they could not even see that you were an egg by your own wits.”

Tsume’s hands and feet bled, still her mind was on her side as she continued to tell herself that none of it was real. The blood wasn’t there. It was like the night of the tiles. She bled but felt nothing. There was nothing. She refused to look to her hands as she located the bathroom door. It was covered just as the one to the bedroom was. She started towards it through the thick vine that now floored the entire room, overlapping the bed and wardrobe. She clawed at the plant desperately, keeping her stamina, her mind and daughter being her drive.

“Do you remember the deal you made, Nara?” Neji asked sweetly, “My family offered our deal and all you did was stare at them from your desk. Your feet propped up on your desk, you took a drag from your gasper before blowing smoke. You said nothing, but you stood. You stood and walked around the room. We wondered if you were a madman with how you stared to everything so seriously as though you had forgotten we were even there at all, as though you had never been in your own office. That was until you reached your window and turned to us. You nodded. My family made for the door, relieved you had finally given your word. I was the last to leave. I felt you trailing me, it frightened me, I must say, but you called out ‘you’. I turned giving you an ugly frown in hopes of scaring you off. You weren’t scared, though. You choked on your smoke and turned away, laughing. It was curious to me that someone would react that way once they had been shooed, but you did,” he relived it all dreamily, “You then calmed yourself and looked to me. You said nothing, only looked with this pesky grin. The grin used to drive me crazy because I could never read it especially back then, but you told me that there was one more condition we had to meet to earn your partnership. I asked what that was and you said lunch. I said I can set that up with my family, but you said, ‘no, only you.’ So,” Neji placed both hands against the still face, “It was only me the very next day.”

The vines against the bathroom door seemed to be thicker than the ones on the double doors, slowing Tsume’s search for Hana. With a few more harsh claws, the silver of the doorknob revealed itself behind the brown shrubbery.

“I met you there, at the restaurant. I believe it was Italian. You had already ordered for me which was kind but confusing at the time. You paid for everything even the drinks,” Neji lowered his hands to the Nara’s shoulders as his eyes traced Shikamaru’s features, “I told my family that you wished to discuss business over food. That was what I thought truthfully, but nothing we spoke of was regarding business. You asked me about frivolous things. I then figured ‘this isn’t a business meeting, is it?’ You told me, ‘now you’re on the trolley,” he laughed lightly, “I enjoyed myself, I believe you did too which is why we continued to have our business meetings then they became secretive. I would leave whenever and offer no explanation and you would meet me. Eventually we wound up staying at your home from time to time where,” he traced the Nara’s shoulder, “Well,” he left that thought unfinished, “You were a gentleman, lovely to spend my days with. Business was good, but I had grown tired of living with my family, I told you. ‘Why not stay with me?’ You asked. So, I moved in, but you happened to be working on another house, further from the city. You asked me what we should add. It was my first day living with Shikamaru Nara and you were already asking me such sudden questions. I told you it was perfect as it was, so you built it with the money you earned from our deal and we made it ours,” he smiled, “It was wonderful,” the smile died as quickly as it grew, “until nonsense grew in the city that we tried to leave behind.”

Tsume pulled and pulled, breaking some of the wild growth producing scraping and scratching noises all along the floor. She then squeezed through the small opening she had made to spot the broken sink and its pool that had developed along the floors. She then forced the door even wider, wide enough for her to enter fully. The growth had coiled all along the ceiling, some broken pieces fell into her hair and over her shoulders as she trudged through it all, “Hana?” She looked to the shower that was nothing more than a tall glass of dead roses and roots.

“The paper was delivered to our doorstep and your name was at the top,” Neji recalled, “It read ‘Shikamaru Nara, a cake-eater?’,” he frowned, “My family seemed to feed into the things people would say and realized why I had been so willing to move away with a friend who was supposed to be nothing more than a business partner. They did not like it,” the Hyuga shook his head shamefully, “They quite hated it. But, neither of us cared. We were far from them and had each other,” he said, his smile reappearing as he held Shikamaru’s white hand, “We had each other.”

Tsume bared her hands against the glass. She took a short break before she began ripping at the new layer of vegetation that ripped away at her hands in turn.

“The men in the city, however, did not like the idea of their movers being played by an alleged cake eater and figured it was time for someone else to be in charge,” Neji frowned all over again, biting his lip. He looked the Nara all over, “Oh, Nara,” he whispered sadly.

Tsume ripped the glass door open which only broke into multiple pieces further cutting her damaged hands. Shards flew across her worry-torn face. She blocked her eyes as she reached through the cocoon of vine within the shower.

“They came in tens of my family’s own automobile. I remember hearing their engines stopping right outside of our door. They all sputtered as the men stepped up. They were polite enough to knock, but that was the only kindness they offered us that night. I was upstairs watering the rose you gave to me in our lavatory when I heard shattering. I ran down the flight of stairs to find one of them holding you by the collar. They threatened to hang you by your suspenders I remember. How, horrible,” Neji wrapped his arms around the man that had yet to respond to his words, “Even though you were in trouble, you called for me. You told me to run, so I tried. I promise you I tried, but they only chased after me through the back way. Their anger towards us was so great, that it seemed as though it were the reason behind their speed and strength that night. I never could understand what made them drive all that way just to put an end to what we had. Two men held me down in the snow. From there I watched the others drag you to the back by the suspenders they had wrapped around your neck. They were tight, I could tell. The color of your face wasn’t right,” he placed his chin on the other’s shoulder, “I watched your arms fall before they threw you in the rose bushes. They said unpleasant things as if killing you wasn’t enough. I cried looking at you like that. It was horrendous. The men over me still never let me raise my head a hair from the dirt. I heard a click right by my ear and felt the cold metal. I’m sure that was when they shot me even though I was dead before the bullet met the ground. I was only glad it didn’t hurt,” his hold on the man tightened as he buried his face into the crook of the cold neck, “It was a horrible night.”

Tsume pulled and pulled on the arm she had retrieved from the cocoon of thorns that was just as punctured as her own. She grunted trying to dismiss the pain that she was sure was holding her back from her full strength, “Come on, baby,” she said between pants before using both hands to pull the girl from the bind. Miraculously, the bind of the plant seemed to be loosening.


	10. Chapter 10

“I remember waking up in the snow. It was morning and I wondered how it was that I could not feel the cold. I was sitting in snow; I should have died if I had fallen asleep outdoors. I remembered you and saw where your shoe stuck out of your roses. You loved your roses more than anything. Maybe even more than me,” Neji joked lightly, “I was a fool to run after you. I saw how they had left you, your face it was,” he stopped, “Well, not how I remembered it. I went inside to use the stick phone. The house was a mess from the night before. So much was broken, except for the vase that still stood, it was empty because of the winter season. Roses did not come easily then,” he smiled bitterly, “I was watching the vase and wanted to cry because you would never bring me roses again, I realized. That was when I heard your voice. I thought I was crazy, but it was you,” he eased his face from Shikamaru’s neck to capture his eyes which were fixed on the master bathroom of the higher floor, “You stood there with the strangest look on your face but I was only glad it wasn’t blue. You asked me ‘what are you doing here?’ I could have asked you the same thing since you should have been in the bushes. You told me that I should have gotten away, been alive. I questioned what you meant. I found out later though when I tried to leave that neither of us had made it through the night. You took me to where I had been left. Snow covered my body, so I hadn’t seen it once I woke up that morning. Over time, the snow melted, and I saw it. I saw me. I was horrid once that last bit of red snow had melted. But,” he placed a hand against Shikamaru’s face once again, “We still had each other. I never needed roses to know it, Nara. I never needed them at all. I needed you, and I have you.”

Hana fell from the vines that had laxed finally, allowing Tsume to hold the girl in her tired, pierced arms. She held the girl and rocked back and forth, brushing her hair behind her pale ear promising that everything was okay. She told her that she was there and that it was over. Finally, it was over.

“I loved you, not the roses. You were there with me year-round for the five years we spent alive together, not the roses. One dry day, and the roses would leave me but not you. You stayed and you are still here. You reminded me of this when you brought me back after I slipped,” he gripped the Nara’s hands again, “I need you, not the roses.”

The grip tightened in return to Neji’s touch. The Hyuga looked to where their cold, pale hands were joined before lifting his gaze where the Nara was watching him unlike before.

“You didn’t like the roses?” Shikamaru asked, hushed and regretful.

“That is not it. I did love the roses, but they were hardly anything compared to you. That is what I was trying to make you see.”

Shikamaru looked to the maze walls on either side of them before his eyes fell to the dirt. He then placed a hand over his head, “I’m sorry.”

“It is fine,” Neji smiles softly pulling the man’s hand from his hair to place a gentle kiss to the white knuckles, “just don’t do it again.”

/ / /

“Mom?” Hana mumbled waking up in her mother’s arms in an empty bathroom that appeared to have never been broken in any aspect, “What…” she looked around.

“Sh, it’s okay,” Tsume assured before standing, “Come on,” she said, holding her hand out for the girl to grab.

“Where…”

“We’re leaving now. We’re getting a hotel until we can move out for good. This place isn’t right.” They raced through the room to the hall before heading down the stairs in rushed steps as Hana rubbed her tired eyes.

“Mom?” Kiba asked from where he was wrapped in the same blanket he had kept on throughout the evening.

“In the car now, go, go, come on,” she rushed the two ahead of her before grabbing her keys and snow boots, hopping into them one by one before slamming the door shut behind her.

Neji and Shikamaru listened as the car’s engine echoed through the winter sky before its tires chirped. They looked to one another peculiarly.

The two now watched from the front yard as the navy-blue sedan drove off through the icy road. It was a risky drive, but better than what they had dealt the family that night.

Kiba looked over his seat to find two pale figures fading in the distance. His eyes widened in shock as he settled back down next to his sister who had fallen asleep all over again.

“They should burn that damn place to the ground,” Tsume hissed as she raced through the neighborhood.

Neji and Shikamaru continued to watch the vehicle as it shrank in the distance.

“Well,” the Nara began.

“The house is empty again,” Neji finished, unsure of how to take it.

Shikamaru then swayed side to side as he weighed their options, “It is.”

/ / /

They looked to the items the family had left behind in the sudden flee staring with Tsume’s vanity.

“I suppose these walls are nice,” Neji admitted.

“You chose them,” Shikamaru reminded.

“I suppose I did,” the Hyuga said as he studied the pink tile.

The Nara looked to the woman’s cosmetics, “It’s changed. Well, lipstick is pretty much the same.”

“You have experience?” Neji asked jokingly.

“Not the first.”

“When was the last time we have had a family?” The Hyuga asked.

“The nineties,” Shikamaru responded as he looked over the color palette.

“The nineties?” Neji crossed his arms feeling as though that wasn’t correct.

“Yup.”

“Well, you win.”

The Nara turned to face him, “Win what?”

“You are scarier than me, Nara.”

“You hate scaring people, that’s not fair competition,” Shikamaru dismissed as he continued through the bathroom door.

“Yes, but you do not have to think about it, you simply do it. I had to think about how to scare the mother to beat you to it.”

“And you did.”

“Hardly.”

“You think we’ll get another buyer?” Shikamaru asked, pausing in his step.

“Because of you and for their sake, I hope not.”

“Just admit you like having the house to ourselves.”

“That is not the case,” Neji denied.

“It is because when we’ve got people here, we can’t dance, we can’t play music, we can’t roam as freely as we did when the place was just ours.”

The Hyuga side eyed him before leaving the Nara in the hallway.

“Admit it,” Shikamaru called through the house, unsure of where the Hyuga had faded to. He then heard a very familiar tune of novelty piano being played on the record down below as the lights began to flick on one by one leading up the steps toward the Nara. Shikamaru smirked, pulling his hair a loose before placing his gambler hat on his head as he headed towards the light to attend yet another ball with the love of his life that continued to last even through death.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1920's Lingo Translation
> 
> Dewdropper: Lazy slacker
> 
> Egg: Absurdly wealthy person
> 
> Gasper: Cigarette
> 
> Lavatory: Bathroom
> 
> Stick Phone: Telephone
> 
> Bushwa: Bullshit
> 
> Now you’re on the trolley: Now you’ve got it
> 
> Cake-Eater: Homosexual


End file.
